


Reading

by Townycod13



Series: K2 Week [4]
Category: South Park
Genre: M/M, sp k2 week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 11:27:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15436044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Townycod13/pseuds/Townycod13
Summary: Kyle is experiencing the terror of being an adolescent that finds himself attracted to a gender he hadn't considered before. Naturally, he retreats to the world of fiction.





	Reading

Falling in love with a shadow is one thing, many people do it every day. Rather than the human being casting the dark distorted figure, they only see the distortion and in whichever way they most see fit. It’s easier to love a shadow than a real human. Or so it seems.

Falling in love with fiction is safer. It has the same level of dishonest escapism but none of the consequences that occur when a person looks up from the shadow they adore and see the broken hearted mess standing above it.

Unlike shadows, or humans for that matter, fiction has no mysteries to it. What one reads, sees, or understands is the truth. The shadow, in this case, is all there is.

Kyle fell in love with a fictional character.

It wasn’t the first one that had stolen his heart, an avid reader such as himself found a great many nonexistent people to fantasize about, but this one was different.

It probably had something to do with his age; he had only just entered the confusion that comes with being a young adult and entered an even more confusing category of life: how to define his own sexuality.

It’s easier as a child in some ways. People give you a default and as stifling as that default can be, there’s no pressing need to wrap your arms around another human in a loving embrace. There’s no real unrelenting fascination with the curves of other bodies.

At least there hadn’t been one for Kyle. He’d been a dirty little boy who played in the mud with his friends and that was how he had liked it.

And then he hit that dreaded stretch of time in a human’s life where the body _changes_ and while he was well aware of the biology behind it, the evolutionary theories to explain it, and the inevitability of it… knowing facts and experiencing first-hand was a whole new experience.

The first thing he took real notice of was that girls weren’t the only figures he found a bit too eye-catching for comfort.

So, he did what he felt was only sane in the circumstances: he ran to the library, brushed past aisle after aisle of informative fact, and took hold of the first fiction that caught his eye.

A simple orange book titled [Kenny].

He’d never heard of it or seen the book before and unlike the ones surrounding it, there was no back-cover blurb to summarize the experience of reading.

But he flipped it open out of pure curiosity and found himself entirely absorbed from the first sentence alone.

[Death sucks balls.]

It was hours later when the librarian found him, seated uncomfortably against a bookshelf and halfway through the breath-stopping novel.

He checked out the book without a single hesitation, plans to purchase his own copy already evolving from an already growing adoration.

Reading the entire book once wasn’t enough. Twice wasn’t either.

Kyle was completely enamored with the fictional boy known as Kenny.

The only real problem he hit was that he was in apparent possession of the only copy in existence.

There were no fans, there were no copies online, [Kenny] was a seemingly self-published novel left in a school library as a joke.

“Dude, it doesn’t matter how many times you recommend me that weird book, I don’t like reading.”

Kyle frowned at his friend, Stan wasn’t always an asshole, but just often enough to remind Kyle why he liked fictional companions so much more.

“Don’t you have to return that to the library someday? You’ve been carrying it with you everywhere for like three weeks now.”

Kyle clutched the book protectively to his chest, “ _Never_. They won’t miss one stupid book. Until I find my own copy, I’m not giving this up.”

Stan pinched his nose but let it end with that, choosing to walk in silence.

Silence was easier sometimes. Kyle didn’t quite know how he was supposed to act or how he was supposed to be. What was normal for a boy his age? Was he normal for a boy his age?

The anxieties edged away when he thought about Kenny though. The boy that could be an immortal princess or an actual superhero. The boy who always did his best and never hesitated to do the right thing.

Not for the first time Kyle wished there was an author that had actually left his name on the book. Sometimes he wondered if he wasn’t in love with the character but maybe the person that casted the shadow of an orange clad immortal boy.

What kind of person could write such heart-wrenching fiction? It was so _real_ , blunt, down to earth, but it dealt in such fanciful concepts that took the reader for a heart stopping adventure.

Without minding the busy halls of the school, Kyle flipped open the book again, searching for a scene he was sure would explain to Stan exactly why this was a must-read book.

“ _Oof_ —“ Kyle wasn’t even sure who made the sound, he was sure he should have been watching where he was going, as it was both he and the innocent passerby fell onto the schools linoleum floor, books scattering in the way of uncaring students who easily continued their paths.

He faintly heard Stan make a remark.

His eyes were caught on the boy who was collecting books, too many books--library books? He wondered if it was one of the students who regularly volunteered in the library. Or maybe a detentioneer?

That wasn’t the most intriguing part though.

Kyle’s heart actually stuttered.

It was like someone had taken the boy off of the pages of his book and planted him in the school hallway.

A brown glove startled to a stop over the orange cover of the book Kyle had stolen from the library before shockingly blue eyes looked up to his own.

It’s easy to fall in love with the shadow of a person. What one wants of them, expects of them, dreams them up to be. The human casting the shadow is always the problem.

Sometimes they’re far more breath-taking than the shadow ever was.


End file.
